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I was just listening to Neil Young's old song,” Heart of Gold,” and it reminded me of a story I used to tell at the Opening the Heart Workshop several years ago when the workshop was a much longer event than it is now..

It's a story about a diamond merchant in India. The merchant had gone to Delhi to purchase a huge and very expensive diamond. A clever thief had been waiting for his opportunity to steal the same diamond from the very store where the merchant had just purchased it.” No problem,” thought the thief,” I am the best pickpocket in all India.” He followed the merchant to the train station, finding several opportunities to brush against him in the crowded street. Each time he slipped his hand into one of the diamond merchant's pockets, but it was to no avail, the thief could not find the diamond anywhere. Frustrated, he used the last of his money to purchase a train ticket on the same train as the merchant. The journey was a long one, and soon the merchant dozed off. The thief searched through all the merchant's belongings. Again he came up empty-handed.

Eventually, the train pulled up at the merchant's destination. He collected his belongings and left the carriage. Overcome with curiosity, the thief could not contain himself.

” Sir,” he said,” I have to admit to you that I am a thief and I have followed you all the way from Delhi, trying to steal the diamond that you bought there. I beg you, tell me where you hid it.”

The merchant smiled a knowing smile.

” I recognized that you were a thief the very moment I saw you at the jeweler's shop. I knew that you were probably a skilled pickpocket. The only thing I could think to do was to hide the diamond where you would never think to look for it.”

With that, the diamond dealer reached across and retrieved the diamond from the thief's own pocket.

We search "the world" looking for our "Heart of Gold" while, all the time, it is right here inside us. If we spent less time stressing and struggling, looking for happiness outside
ourselves, we would be more likely to notice that we already have everything we need. Instead of being frustrated "theives of happiness," constantly searching for the big prize, we could turn around and look for the treasure hidden in our own heart.

Sophie Glikson, one of our gifted Opening the Heart Workshop therapists, is also a talented artist. Here we feature two of her recent works. Above is a tryptic - Ahh....Yes....Om..

Below is a detail from the work Precious Soul Center:

Sophie joined the leadership team for our recent Opening the Heart Workshops at Kripalu in Massachusetts and at Avow Hospice in Naples FL. I know that the participants at thosewho worked with Sophie at those workshops will enjoy seeing another facet of her creativity.

Sophie practices Psychotherapy and Creative Medicine in Medford MA and is also an Expressive Therapies Clinical Instructor at Lesley University in Cambridge MA. She can be reached at sglikson@lesley.edu

I am so grateful that we are all still here, on this breathtaking, whirling, ever changing orb we call home.
Did you all see the moon last night? How did she make you feel inside? For me, wild, tender, time limited and small. And a little hungry for something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Small in a good way, like relief. As a child, I worried about God. All that work to do, never enough time to rest, even on a Sunday. So many people hurting. So many prayers to answer. A little like Santa with too many chimneys on multiple continents. Hard to know how to dress in the morning, what to put on, and what to take off.
It's a relief to have work that we love. It's a relief to love.